With Christmas weekend approaching, we’re going to pause our journey through the life and times of Samuel, leaving the Ark of the Covenant of the God of Israel in the home of Abinadab, in the town of Kiriath Jearim, as we saw yesterday in 1 Samuel 7:1,2.
For the next few days, from this very same area in Israel, let’s roll time forward and journey toward Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus. Moving from the days of Samuel forward about 300 years, we come again to a time of great turmoil throughout the land. Israel had turned far away from God, as they had in Samuel’s time.